A profile of the billionaire who has bought out Jordan By Gordon Farquhar BBC sports news correspondent

Jordan entered Formula One in 1991

Alex Shnaider is a serious player and man with serious cash at his disposal.

Though not on the scale of Roman Abramovich, who made his money out of oil, Shnaider's multi-national steel empire gives him more than enough to finance a $100m per year F1 team.

The 36-year-old was greeted with some scepticism when he announced last year he was forming his own team, Midland F1, next season.

"All the other teams come with a heavy price tag and they have baggage," Shnaider told the Financial Times last year.

"This way we start with a clean sheet of paper and it's much easier."

But his Midland F1 project, (named after his business enterprise, not the former high-street bank) was a car with a promising chassis from Italian constructor Dallara, but no engine.

So, after suggestions he was interested in acquiring Jaguar before Red Bull charged in, it appears Shnaider opted for the short cut after all and decided to buy in to Silverstone-based Jordan.

That means he can avoid paying a $48m entry bond charged to new teams, as well as giving him an established base.

As Toyota, who entered the sport in 2002, have shown, building a successful F1 team from scratch isn't easy, even when you're one of the most profitable car manufacturers in the world.

Poor cars and a lack of funds saw Jordan finish second last in the 2004 constructor standings

So buying the ready-made article makes a lot of sense, especially when you've still got arch wheeler-dealer Eddie Jordan on board to help with the commercial side of things.

Details of the deal are still sketchy, but given that Shnaider has made it clear he views F1 as another business venture, a global opportunity to publicise his company, a name change to Midland at some point seems inevitable.

But Jordan says for the time being at least, his legacy is secure.

"I'm glad that for the time being we keep the Jordan name and I'm also delighted to confirm I will remain involved with the team and will be working with Jordan in a variety of commercial and sponsorship capacities."

Not that Alex Shnaider needs a lot of help on that front.

His Midland business empire is based on steel - he now has stakes in firms in Serbia, Ukraine, Turkey, China, India, Montenegro and Russia - and has been expanded to include shipping, agriculture, construction, real estate and energy distribution divisions.

Although born in Russia, his dentist mother and engineer father emigrated to Israel in 1972, then moved to Toronto ten years later. He made his fortune, (by his own admission,) through a happy co-incidence.

His contacts in the steel industry took him to work in Ukraine.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Steel mills had no-one to sell to.

Shnaider and his partner found them customers. It worked, and he was soon able to make the mill owners in Donetsk offers they couldn't refuse.

From there, he diversified into property in Moscow, shipping on the Black Sea, and Armenia's privatised electricity supply.

His latest major venture includes putting up the funding for the Trump Tower in Toronto, where he lives, as a naturalised Canadian.